Coach's death spurred LHS to first state title

For the most part, though, the small contingent of men from the 1939 Lubbock High School state champion football team can recall that magical time of their lives almost as clearly as if it were yesterday.

''That's one of the highlights of my life,'' said Tom Hart, 78, a senior lineman when the Westerners claimed the school's first state championship with a 20-14 victory against Waco. ''It's not the top moment in my life, because I've been fortunate enough to have had some other great things happen. But it's sure a big part of my life to this day.''

The state championship remains monumental to Hart and his former teammates because of what that LHS team had to endure to reach the top. There were social and economic circumstances unique to that period of American history, and the Westerners were sadly forced to carve their own niche in Texas sports history along the way finishing the season after head coach Weldon Chapman had died from a throat ailment midway through the campaign.

''I don't think it's ever happened before or since where a high school team lost its coach like that and went on to win a state championship,'' Hart said proudly. In 1986, La Marque reached the Class 5A state finals but lost to Plano after its coach was killed in an auto accident.

In 1939, Lubbock was like most other towns on the West Texas prairie. Cotton fields dominated the landscape, there was a rock-hard work ethic and, like American communities everywhere, Lubbock was still trying to recover from the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression.

''We were all still stuck in the Depression,'' said Leete Jackson, 77, the Westerners' all-state halfback in '39 who was later inducted into the Texas High School Hall of Fame. ''It was drilled into us that you worked hard and there was no alternative.''

Because of the hard times around them, football became one of the few outlets available to high school boys.

For the group of players who made up the heart and soul of the state title team, 1939 was simply the final chapter in a seven-year story. All but two of the varsity members on the '39 team had played together since they first tested their football legs at Central Junior High.

''We all knew each other from the time we were in third or fourth grade on, and that made a big difference,'' said Pat Farris, 78, an all-state lineman from that team who was later an assistant and head coach at LHS.

Those seven years together also formed an iron-clad bond among the players, a bond that was put to a severe test eight weeks into the '39 season.

Chapman had suffered from various ailments for years, and in 1939 his condition worsened. As a result of his health problems, Chapman's voice was barely audible, but his message never went unheard.

''You could barely hear him because of his voice, but when he started talking, it would get so quiet you could hear a pin drop,'' Farris said. ''We wanted to hear what he had to say because we knew it would help us.''

Just prior to Lubbock High's eighth game, Chapman was forced to check into the hospital when his illness flared up, meaning he would miss his team's battle with Plainview that week.

As the Westerners and Bulldogs played, Chapman was kept apprised of the score through radio reports. When the game ended with LHS winning 19-0, legend has it that Chapman smiled in approval and then quietly passed away.

''It was as devastating a thing that could've happened to us,'' Jackson said. ''He meant a lot to all of us. It was a very stressful time for all of us.''

The Westerner players made a somber, 31/2-hour bus ride to Cisco (46 miles east of Abilene) early the next week to say goodbye to their fallen leader. Meanwhile, longtime LHS assistant J.G. Keyes who played for Chapman in Cisco took control of the head-coaching reins.

Lubbock High had two regular-season games left: Hobbs, N.M., and a huge contest versus Amarillo that would determine the District 1-AA championship and which team went to the playoffs.

Against Hobbs, the grieving Westerners prevailed 14-0 on a pair of punt-return touchdowns.

''We played like hell to win that game and that was because the coaches did a hell of a job getting us ready and focused on what we needed to do,'' Jackson said.

That set the stage for perhaps the most important game of the season at Butler Field in Amarillo. The Sandies were a well-established schoolboy power after winning consecutive state championships from 1934-36.

In a hard-fought first half, Amarillo squeaked out a 7-0 lead. In the locker room at halftime, team doctor Dr. Standerfer held up a watch reputed to be Chapman's.

''He held it up to show us and told us 'You're behind 7-0, but you've got 30 minutes to do something about it,' '' Jackson said. ''We came out of that locker room on fire.''

LHS tied the game 7-7 with a long touchdown drive in the third period. With time running out in the final quarter and the Sandies pinned against their goal line, Farris stacked up Amarillo quarterback Bill Andrews as he tried to escape the end zone. Westerner linebacker Clifton Hill attacked like a torpedo and sent Andrews sprawling backward for a safety and 9-7 LHS lead.

On the game's final play, Farris snagged a deflected Andrews' pass to seal the victory and in the process knocked out four stitches above his left eye from a cut he had absorbed in a practice collision with Jackson.

To this day, the victory against Amarillo that sent LHS into the playoffs is the one players point to as the most important stepping stone.

''We had to beat Amarillo to get to the playoffs, and we had to play awfully hard to beat them,'' Hart said.

Added Jackson, who noted that the Westerners were the first Texas team to knock the Sandies off at Butler, ''I remember the details from that game more than I do the state championship game. It was just a huge win for us.''

That victory also created somewhat of a rare camaraderie among the Westerners and their foes. Hart said other teams from the district jumped on the LHS bandwagon, including a small band of Amarillo players who provided scouting reports and even stood on the Westerner sideline during the playoffs.

Once LHS reached the postseason, the bond that existed among the Westerner players and the motivation spurred by Chapman's death only got stronger. Lubbock High blanked Electra (20-0) and Sweetwater (6-0) to reach the title game against Waco.

Like Amarillo, the Lions were an established prep power, and in fact were the first team in state history to claim three consecutive state crowns (1925-27). Waco was considered a heavy favorite to win its fifth state championship in 13 years, casting the Westerners into a familiar role.

''We'd just gotten used to being the underdogs so we felt like we always had something to prove,'' Farris said.

And prove it they did. In an era when high school football still included 15-minute quarters and had stipulations on substituting, the Westerners' gritty starting 11 played every down except one. The exception was when Max Wathall replaced quarterback Pete Cawthon Jr. to relay a play ... only to get to the huddle and find out that Cawthon had already called the play.

''We were worn out by the fourth quarter but none of us wanted to come out of the game,'' Hart said.

LHS was not too worn out to spring the winning score. Midway through the fourth period, Howard Alford broke free for a 38-yard touchdown scramble. Cawthon threw a key block on the run, and after that the Westerner defense held for the 20-14 victory.

Though Chapman had never been far from his players' minds, he was especially inspirational in the final game.

''I think we were able to draw on the determination that we could always get up and come back under tough circumstances,'' Hart said.

The '39 state championship continued to play a major role for the LHS players. Most went on to serve in World War II, and all but a handful came back. The Westerners began having reunions in 1959 and now have one every three years. In 1998, 14 of the 18 players still living attended.

''The thing that was really unusual about our ball club was that we were so close back then and we've hung together all these years,'' Jackson said. ''We've all remained really great friends.''

Jackson gained local fame as an executive vice president in the Red Raider Club, and in 1972 was inducted into the Texas High School Hall of Fame and the Texas Tech Hall of Honor.

''That was a deal where you ask yourself, 'Why me?' '' Jackson said. ''We were a team that didn't have any stars. It could've been any one of 22 guys who got this honor.''

Farris can lay claim to an honor no other Westerner can. After his playing days at LHS and Texas Tech, Farris went into coaching and was a Westerner assistant in 1951 and '52 when they won back-to-back state crowns. That makes Farris the only man who played a role in all three LHS state titles.

''That's really an honor because I got a chance to be associated with three great teams and a lot of great players,'' Farris said.

After Pat Pattison left LHS in 1953, Farris was the Westerners' head coach for two seasons, and he later served as an assistant at Midland Lee from 1961-81.

Like the majority of the players from the 1939 state championship team, Hart has led a life out of the spotlight. He graduated from Tech and spent his career as a petroleum engineer.

But like all of the players on that club, Hart owns a special place in the history of Lubbock schoolboy football.

''It sure gave me a lot of great memories,'' Hart said. ''I'm still proud when I can tell people I was Westerner in 1939.''

Randy Rosetta can be contacted at 766-8743 or at rrosetta@lubbockonline.com